There have been some powerful responses to the question that I posed earlier in the week about the essential component of teaching, but the one that, at first, seemed to turn back on itself and, as a result, got me thinking in a different way was provided by Doretta Wilson:
What’s the most important thing in teaching? Knowing your craft. (emphasis added) Everything else will come from that –the good relationships with students, parents, and colleagues; respect from same; love of your vocation; concern and care for the students; pride in accomplishment.
So, what does it mean to know your craft. But first, what does it mean to refer to teaching as a craft? It’s an interesting metaphor. I’ve heard teachers referred to as artists, technicians, professionals and now, in this instance, craftspeople.
I’ve read some of the research on the craft knowledge that teachers bring to their work, but this tends to be esoteric and difficult to get at; as a result, it is difficult to pass along that knowledge to others.
I’ll follow up with a few questions that I’ll carry with me today. What does it mean to know your craft? What, specifically, is involved? What tools are necessary? What are we crafting? Are students our raw material, or are they part of the crafting as well? Do we expect teachers to pass a finished product on to the next craftsperson, or do we recognize education to be a long process of formation and development? When do we expect the finished product to arrive? Am I comfortable with this imagery? Is it the right metaphor for the job that teachers do? Is it the right metaphor for the role that the learners play in the process?
Now Doretta may not have intended for the phrase to raise all of these questions, but that’s what happens when you poke at a metaphor!
Feel free to jump in on any of this in advance of the results my own thinking today!
Know your craft. Very compelling, as I am writing a blog post right along these lines right now. For me, at the moment, it is all about Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule– a confluence of opportunity, luck, fate, talent, and practiced reptition. I will let this simmer and report back. I am interested in learning what others have to contribute on this.
Thanks Marty. I look forward to hearing back from you and reading your own work!
Great question! And therefore more of a conversation starter…So here’s my immediate reaction to the question and I too reserve the right to jump back as the question percolates… Craft suggests 3 components: raw material, process and intention. Undeniably all 3 are there in teaching. Where it gets interesting is how we ‘map’ the correspondence in the metaphor (if I can use a maths metaphor!). It is tempting to put the students as the material and I believe that is a classic mistake that adults make with children. They are not our ‘projects’ to complete like flat packs to assemble. My initial take here based on my own passion for creative education is that what the teacher crafts is a series of ‘learning opportunities’ every day for every child, wow! The raw material is their knowledge, both of the information and skill/experience level of the students as well as physical resources. The process has at least 3 phases includeing (beforehand)planning, delivering,(crucially DURING) witnessing/mentoring/facilitating and (after)recording & reflecting back. To complete the metaphor the third component is the intention to enable a ‘learning event’ for each student but this can not be predicted or crafted as it requires luck, destiny, fate and yes collaboration from the student!! The opportunity however is totally craft-able. My 1st attempt to be in such a discussion so thanks for this learning opportunity for me.
Hi Sushma,
Thanks for jumping in to this in such a reflective and thoughtful way! I agree that adopting metaphor requires some mapping. This is where we start to interrogate our thinking on a deeper level. I’m hoping that others will jump in, offer their own thoughts and challenge some of what is here.
Thank you for putting the child/student into the process. Often, when we talk about planning and implementing, its easy to look at the knowledge as the central focus…and usually that is the knowledge that the teacher brings to the table. I think that the knowledge piece is essential, but I think that we need to talk about that a little more.
My own children have been in a Reggio-inspired daycare and, in that program, the child’s knowledge and interest are raised up as the essential driver for the curriculum that is developed. The teachers actually listen to what students are talking about and move from there. I realize that bringing this approach into the world of public education is challenging, but it sounds like you might have ways that you do that.
There’s a lot to think about in your response. Let’s get some others to weigh in!
Hi Stephen,
I think the metaphor is somewhat restrictive or I may “feel” this profession on a different level. Maybe because in our system (Romanian) we spend four years teaching the same class of students so the relationship between students and teachers grows to such an extent that we do feel like a family regardless of how cliche this may sound.
I definitely do not see children as “products”. To me this professions is deeply infused with humanness and goes beyond the “craft”stage. Certainly, we do have the expertise and knowledge to guide students in their academic learning, but teaching is more than that. Teaching involves integrity, personal values, respect for children as persons, a deep appreciation of their potential as human beings, a constant tension between our need to guide and our responsibility to create independent minds.
I am not an ideal teacher and I don’t think one exists. I often think of teaching as a parenting act and there are no perfect parents, either. Frustration may occur at times, a sense of helplessness at others, but all without question are within a larger context of love for children. We cannot reach all children at all times and I think that makes us grow, too, as we seek to develop professionally, to find ways to do better in the future.
I have over 15 years of teaching experience and yet I never fail to marvel at what these little people are capable of. At the end of the day, I think that is what counts. Never let the fire extinguish.
Cristina, a warm and heartfelt response. Thank you for that. I agree with you that the idea that children are our product simply does not resonate. And that is the difficulty I am having with this metaphor. But, despite a disdain for the idea of child as product, there are indications that the system that we have sees them this way.
I like some of the practices and structures that you describe…ones that seek a more relational, developmental approach to the process of educating.
Thanks for your experience and your thoughts on this…
Hope its ok to jump in again here… I like what you say Cristina about teachers being in loco parentis. And in fact the metaphor translates out to that role too. Parentcraft I remember as the name of some antenatal classes I attended! I think love, relationship and connection, of which Cristina speaks so eloquently, is essential in both roles. The craft part though is I think a different strand related to the adult’s ‘Skills & Resources’ and that is about their effectiveness and duty of care. Neglectful parents don’t necessarily love their children any less…what they lack is skills & resources. And this is why its essential that the ‘output’ or product of the craft is not considered to be the child but the created or designed ‘lesson’, the opportunity space, into which the children are yes, lovingly, supportively invited.
Interesting, I hadn’t heard the phrase, “in loco parentis” since my faculty of education law class back in the ’80s, and I’ve run into it three times this week! As a sidebar, one of the things that has gradually changed in many societies, especially those that have embraced immigration and multi-culturalism, is that it is not too clear anymore what that means. In the place of my parents, me as a parent, this particular child’s parent? Do we have the same general sense of what values and visions parents bring to their role as we once did? Did we ever have a universal agreement on what this means?
So Sushma, the craft part of teaching, for you, has more to do with the part of the role that designs the learning experiences as opposed to what emerges from the process of schooling. The craft is in the forming of the learning environment and not the learner. Do I have that right?
Hi Stephen,
You make a good point about Parenting. What that means is itself in the melting part of these transformational times we are living in! As more and more parents are either working or not living with their children or both, in some ways many of what was traditional ‘parentcraft’ has moved squarely into Education! Perhaps this is the earth shifting beneath our feet, not only in tangible ways such as ‘who is making the children’s breakfast?’ with the advent of breakfast/after school clubs, but also an expectation of school being the primary arbiter of ethics, ‘values’, etc. along with getting children through exams & tests, etc. An interesting sidebar as you say!
Coming back to topic, you ask about my own work and yes, for me my craft is to firstly DESIGN a creative time/space event which acts as both a mirror into a child’s inner world and a window into the outer world, I believe both aspects are critical in a meaningful learning encounter. The Adult is important here to offer guidance and boundaries as needed and to point out key features of whatever landscape is being explored…but it is the child’s own reaction to the material which is critical to learning and needs to be validated, and this is where the adults reaction to the child’s response is crucial as it models to the child how they should FEEL about their response. This modelling of how to react to their own learning experience is fundamental to their development as learners and indeed people! So this is also part of the craft, the phase 2. Teachers often comment on how every child pays attention in my workshops and I always say it is because I am paying attention to THEM. This, I believe is why I have breakthroughs, because my aim is not to ‘teach’ as such but to craft an opportunity for the children to ‘learn’, and whatever they learn is worthwhile, my only requirement is full engagement and honest expression of their reaction, and where the space is made ‘safe’ for whatever that expression may be (I welcome incomprehension or confusion! as it signals opportunity for deeper engagement), we are onto a winner. I take how connected their engagement was as an assessment of the effectiveness of what I crafted as opposed to a calibration of the children (they as Cristina pointed out, ALWAYS produce magic!!).
I have to say in closing, this is a high energy way to operate and as a visitor (so more aunt than parent perhaps!), I can and do bring this to the classroom, and enjoy collaborating with the teachers to do it, but in an ideal world, Class teachers would be supported in operating this way at other times too. Creativity needs resource to power it, yes, but it makes the difference between lessons where children are surviving & being obedient or flourishing and being aware, which given the challenging future ahead of us, is where we want our children.